Technology Transfer Via Industry-University Relationship: The Case of the Foreign High Technology Electronics Industry in Mexico's Silicon Valley (review)

Technology transfer is, in general, the transmission of technology from one entity to another. Vargas's book has to do with the transfer of technology from foreign electronics multinational corporations (MNCs) to Mexico's Silicon Valley and the specific role that resident universities play in that process. This case study raises important technology transfer issues relevant for any country or state. Federal and state-level policymakers across international boundaries are interested in attracting capital and spurring innovation. Technology transfer is the linchpin that makes this all possible.

Vargas introduces her work by asserting her conclusion: Technology transfer in Guadalajara, Mexico, has fallen short of expectations despite government efforts to stimulate such transfer. Why has this happened? What is the role of the university? Why has such transfer occurred in some countries (particularly in Malaysia) but not others (Mexico)? After raising these intriguing questions, Vargas wisely helps the reader conceptualize the abstract concept of technology transfer. Perhaps most challenging is the emerging realization that technology transfer is difficult to define and measure because of its multidimensionality, which is rooted in learning and understanding.

In Chapter 2, Vargas covers much ground by reviewing existing literature on the role that government and policy play to enhance technology transfer; the forms that MNCs use to invest in a foreign country; and the role universities play in strengthening technology transfer. She presents literature relevant to Mexico and Guadalajara with strategic references that use Malaysia as a contrast.

Chapters 3 and 4 begin to focus the study, the former on Mexican higher education and the latter on the electronics industry in Mexico. Mexico's investment in higher education has grown over time, but it falls short on most measures of investment compared to that of other countries. The Napoleonic history of Mexico's higher education system has also been somewhat at odds with industry endeavors. Meanwhile, the foreign electronics industry in Mexico has not been focused on design but rather on manufacturing and low levels of technology. There has been job creation in Mexico among the resident population, but not of the variety that leads to significant research, development, and ultimately technology transfer.

It is in Chapter 5 that Vargas substantively draws on the interviews of government, industry, and higher education professionals to determine whether certain activities that could lead to technology transfer took place in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s. The defined activities are guided by the literature and cover a broad range of interactions: donations of equipment from industry to university, new course development, research linkages, etc. The reader will certainly perceive some activities as strongly related to technology transfer, while others seem mildly related. In sum, however, Vargas finds only scattered evidence of linkages between industry and higher education and thus only occasional opportunity for technology transfer.

Chapter 6 is compelling in that the author thoroughly investigates Guadalajara's technological workforce capacity and compares this supply to industry's demand for such workers. Vargas convincingly concludes that Guadalajara has the available supply of needed workers, so it is not the lack of "absorptive" capacity that explains the lack of technology transfer. In Chapter 7, she compares scientific and technological activities in Guadalajara across time. The evidence here is less convincing than in Chapter 6, as she does not compare Mexican investment in research and development to that of other states or countries. Guadalajara shows large increases in much of its research and development activities, but that is simply because such activity was so insignificant to start with.

Vargas concludes that technology transfer in Mexico's Silicon Valley has been very limited, in contrast with certain Asian countries. Mexico has, in her opinion, done its part to supply graduates and to...